A rescue team of 1000 finds no survivors in China landslide

A thousand rescue workers searching for survivors of a massive landslide in southwestern China find none, bringing the number of dead to 46, state media reports.

GAOPO VILLAGE, YUNNAN PROVINCE, CHINA (JANUARY 11, 2013) (CCTV) - A thousand rescue workers dug frantically through the mud but found no survivors of a landslide in China's southwestern Yunnan province on Saturday (January 12), state media said, bringing the final death toll to 46.

More than a dozen homes were engulfed by the landslide which occurred on Friday (January 11). Among the dead were 19 children, state broadcast CCTV said.

"Right now our biggest difficulties are that the slope (we're on) is too steep, and when (the landslide) occurred, (the mud) was very wet. The biggest (problem) is that it's wet,"Zheng Hengwei, leader of the local Zhenxiong mine rescue team, told CCTV as rescue workers searched for survivors on Friday.

According to state media, the direct cause of the landslide is still under investigation.

Natural disasters such as landslides and earthquakes are not uncommon in the remote communities of Yunnan province in southwestern China.

Last October, a landslide in nearby Zhenxiong County killed over 18 school children.

In 2012 several villages in the province were rocked by earthquakes that killed at least 80 people and damaged thousands of buildings.